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NEWS - Myanmar Youths Favor WWII E



Subject: NEWS -  Myanmar Youths Favor WWII Era Jeeps

Myanmar Youths Favor WWII Era Jeeps

 .c The Associated Press

  By PATRICK McDOWELL

KALAW, Myanmar (AP) - Checking the oil on the Jeep he's driven as a
rural
taxi for 30 years, Khin Maung Than explains why he turns away city
slickers
who keep showing up offering big money for it.

``I know what these Jeeps are worth - they're priceless,'' he says,
lighting
a cheroot. ``They're very hardy and easy to fix. Nothing is better for
the
roads around here. In the city, Jeeps are just a new fad.''

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is experiencing Jeep mania.

Car-crazy young people are rediscovering the World War II workhorses
that
still ply potholed backwaters like Kalaw. They're customizing the old
U.S.
Army road warriors into the flashiest rides this long-isolated country
has
ever seen.

The love affair is rooted in Myanmar's role as a battleground,
impoverishment that followed a military coup in 1962, and an uneven
surge in
wealth this decade after younger generals ditched socialism for a more
open
economy.

Every morning, Khin Maung Than pulls his Jeep into the taxi stand in
Kalaw,
a hill station where British colonists escaped hot summers, and packs in
a
dozen passengers heading to market 25 miles away.

This past year, he's been approached by brokers offering up to 300,000
kyats, or about $850. He always refuses, though it's a lot of cash in
Myanmar
and 10 times what he paid for the Jeep.

His Jeep is in original condition. But it wouldn't stay that way long
if
someone like Maung Thura got his hands on it.

In his sarong and baseball cap, Maung Thura looks like any ordinary
27-year-old bachelor in Yangon, the capital 250 miles southeast of
Kalaw.

But he has money by virtue of his aunt, who owns the biggest lottery
shop.
And the loosened economy means that for the first time, the affluent
young
like him have lots of imported cars and parts to spend it on.

Maung Thura spent $1,100 on an old Jeep in original condition down to
the
three-speed transmission. It's now worth five times that, and only the
body
and frame remain.

He dropped in a Toyota turbo-diesel engine with a five-speed gearbox
and
power steering. The body is tarted up with metallic blue paint, flared
fenders, chrome roll bar and alloy wheels. There's a chrome crash bar
and fog

lights - though Yangon never gets fog.

``I could never have done this five years ago,'' Maung Thura says.
``There
were no engines, no spare parts.''

Now, he has one of the coolest cars in town. Dozens more made-over
Jeeps are
also turning heads, as are another new youth favorite, customized
Volkswagen
Beetles.

Just to make sure no one hanging out in the tea shops misses him
coming,
Maung Thura cranks rap music out of huge speakers tucked under velour
bucket
seats.

``Girls are always asking for rides,'' he says.

Due to historical accident and necessity, Myanmar probably has more
Jeeps,
in both wartime and early civilian versions, running on original parts
than
anywhere

The first Jeeps arrived when Myanmar was a battleground of the
China-Burma-India theater. The spunky four-wheel-drives earned an
unmatched
reputation for ruggedness in the mountains and rice paddies.

Civilians snapped them up after the war. Many became taxis on the
northern
roads between Mandalay and the Chinese border, stomping ground of hill
tribes, smugglers and opium lords.

After 1962, the military government cut Myanmar off from the world.
Cars
became scarce when mechanics couldn't keep old clunkers going. Even six
years
ago, Yangon's streets seemed virtually empty of cars.

Upcountry, the tough Jeeps survived. They were the only vehicles that
could
handle the increasingly crumbling roads, and new parts could be turned
out on
simple lathes if originals wore out.

Nowadays, Yangon suffers worsening traffic jams from fleets of recently
imported Toyotas and Nissans. Newer pickups outnumber Jeeps as taxis in
the
hills.

But Jeeps remain prized.

In Pyin Oo Lwin, a hill station once known as Maymyo, car broker Tun
Lin,
26, owns the Jeep everyone envies.

He took the opposite path from Maung Thura and equipped his 1942 model
in
full GI regalia. Painted olive drab, the Jeep has a spade and ax mounted
on
the fender and jerry can of gasoline and spare tire on the back. A metal
carbine case hangs on the dash. Only the M-1 is missing.

Are Jeeps the best American technology he's ever seen? The reply says a
lot
about Myanmar this past half-century:

``This is the only American product we know.''

AP-NY-07-05-99 1326EDT

  Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.